The upside to being the prestigious ceremony of the awards season is having the cache, but the downside is that the show can also be seen as stodgy.

Despite efforts to liven it up in recent years, the choice to bring in Anne Hathaway and James Franco for 2011's show backfired, and pulling Billy Crystal off the hosting bench in 2012 was considered safe.

This year, however, with Seth MacFarlane as the master of ceremonies, Oscars producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan are trying to keep the night as entertaining as possible.

Taylor Schilling plays "The Lucky One" in the upcoming adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel, and she feels that way in real life about working with co-star Zac Efron.

It turns out, the feeling's mutual.

"We didn't have to do much searching for our girl, at all. Found Taylor and she was....extraordinarily talented," Efron told CNN of his 27-year-old co-star, who plays the mystery woman Efron's on-screen Marine searches for in North Carolina, thinking her photo may have kept him alive while he served in Iraq.

But in light of Martin's February death, the studio is now trying to emphasize what the movie is actually about ahead of its July 27 release.

Starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill, who also co-wrote the film, "Neighborhood Watch" is about a group of dads who form a neighborhood watch team in hopes to get time away from their families, only to uncover an alien invasion plot.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is paying close attention to "Hugo" actor Sacha Baron Cohen ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards as reports circulate that the actor wants to pull a red carpet stunt.

On Tuesday, the Hollywood Reporter cited anonymous sources who claimed that Cohen, 40, was angling to attend the Oscars dressed as his character in the upcoming comedy, "The Dictator."